My review is solely for the results achieved using Social SEO. The expectations were moderate (after the sales call, but sales people always promise the moon) and based on what Social SEO set before and during our time using their services over a certain period of time. No results are ever guaranteed with an SEO company.The lack of guarantee is what made my initial contact so funny. I did my research and reached out to them. The sales rep was trying a tad too hard and I told him to dial it back as I am taking the plunge with a high cost agency and going to let the chips fall where they may. He got handed a deal without having to work for it, but I guess when you are in that “closer” mentality day in and day out you can’t turn it on and off. After meeting my rep I was given more realistic expectations.The company and people I dealt with were highly professional, amicable, did okay work, but after burning through tens of thousands of dollars over many months there was no progress.Obviously when you go with an agency you are paying a premium. Despite having friends who worked at even reputable SEO agencies telling me to stay far away, I decided if you don’t try it you will never know and given Social SEO’s high ratings I figured it was the safest investment.The worst part about SEO is the fact it is a long haul game. Meaning you need to keep at it to see results. When you go with an SEO agency,like Social SEO, this means putting up tens of thousands of dollars before you see results.I realized Social SEO is not the best choice for my small niche business. If you are doing under $2-3 Million a year and cash flow is important Social SEO is going to be a cash suck. We also targeted competitive keywords in all of the USA. If you run a niche and are competing in e-commerce trying to get customers all over the United States, then you should also avoid Social SEO. I would venture to say bigger customers who have a minimum $25k/mo to throw at marketing or geographic niches (like exotic cars in Honolulu) should give them a try. That is purely speculation though.While it hurts as a business leader wasting that much money, I have learned an expensive lesson and we have hired full time in house SEO which is providing more detail, depth and more importantly the results which we did not get with Social SEO.